Polaroid 600 Film Pack

If you picked up a cartridge of expired Polaroid film, it’s likely that when you put it in the camera nothing happened. Sometimes even if you purchase a pack of film from the it also doesn’t budge. But you spent way too much on that little cartridge to just let it sit there dead!

Fear not!

As you may or may not know, Polaroid cameras do not have batteries. Rather, the film cartridge itself has a tiny battery that has just enough juice to power the camera for ten shots. So if you stick in a pack of film and nothing happens, chances are the battery in the pack is dead, not the camera itself. This is especially common with expired genuine Polaroid film that has been sitting on a shelf somewhere for several years. With Polaroid film so rare and expensive, why waste the good film trapped in the bad cartridge?

Basically, all you have to do is move the film from the cartridge with a dead battery to a new cartridge with a working battery. Just finish off a working cartridge, and instead of throwing it away, keep it to use again. I strongly recommend a cartridge from the Impossible Project, since their film is much newer and thus, the batteries are much stronger than any genuine Polaroid cartridge. Plus, newer Impossible Project film uses batteries that are so strong, they request you send them back to them so they can be reused.

To do a film transfer, you will move the film in the dead cartridge to the newly empty cartridge.

This sounds intimidating, but it’s fairly easy. Only catch is that you’ll have to do the transfer of film in complete darkness (you’re not even allowed a safety light), so you’ll need to practice this process in the light with a few previously exposed Polaroids.

To remove film from the dead cartridge, just slide it out. Inserting the film into the new cartridge is a bit more difficult. You’ll have to press down the metal base as you insert the film through the slot in the front. You’ll know where the slot is in the dark as it is just above the black plastic material. If you don’t hold down the metal base properly, the film will not completely slide in. Pull it almost completely out and try again until you get it. Repeat this process until all the film is moved.

Be aware that the sheet of film on the top will be sacrificed as the darkslide when you re-insert the cartridge in a camera, so put either an exposed Polaroid or an actual darkslide on the top.

• DxO Film Pack
• Polaroid 100 Pack Film
• Polaroid 600 Film Single Pack